Re: Gary Larson - Offensive?
Larson drives his humor home using many techniques (role reversal and anthropomorphic absurdities are what he's probably best know for), but the two techniques he has absolutely mastered better than anyone are:
Using a simple image to compel a much funnier image to come to mind.
And
Having characters in extraordinary situations reacting in ordinary ways.
The two-peg-legged cat staring longingly at a piranha in a fish bowl isn't funny because the panel depicts a funny occurrence. It's funny because of the image that comes to mind of a cat stupid enough to sacrifice it forelimb not once, but twice, in its attempts to fish a piranha out of its bowl. Had Larson drawn a picture of a cat actually getting its front legs eaten off as it tried to attack the piranha, he would have been drawn and quartered. But because
we conjure up the outrageously violent image in our own minds, that somehow lets Larson off the hook, and it makes it acceptable for us find it hilarious without being offended. Larson is better at this than anyone.
Another example of this technique is the parrot who incessantly says, “Hello? Anybody home? Ding dong, ding dong! Anybody home?” In a corner of the panel, we see the feet of someone who has, for whatever reason, dropped dead, and the parrot is repeating the words of those who have come knocking on the door. Again, had Larson depicted the moment and manner of this person's death, it wouldn't have been at all funny. But seeing only the aftermath and having to “put it together” in our own minds makes this person's death a rewarding punchline.
Another technique he uses to great effect is the way he has characters in extraordinary situations react in completely ordinary ways. One of my favorites in this category depicts a vacuuming housewife who discovers her husband, missing for days, stuck between the sofa cushions. How does she react? She says, “Harold! So that's where you've been all this time! Oh, and look! There's my old hairbrush, too!”
I don't know anyone who uses these two techniques to greater effect.
With regard to Larson's “offensive” cartoons, my favorite among those he never allowed to be published in the newspaper is the one with the caption:
How Casper the Friendly Boy became Casper the Friendly Ghost. Growing up, I was creeped out be the premise of the
Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon because I seemed to be the only one in the world who understood that it was about the ghost of a boy approximately my age who met an untimely end. When I saw Larson's cartoon, it comforted me to know that I wasn't the only one who wondered how this boy, Casper, died. Plus, it's just SO funny!
I mean, how many bananas are there in the Antarctic?
